Bluesmart Smart Luggage

Meet Bluesmart: The Handy Carry-On That Doubles As A Personal Travel Assistant

The AskMen
Acquire team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life.

Despite what you may want to believe, we all know that traveling is no casual affair — it doesn’t matter if you’re you’re off to the in-laws for the weekend, you’re headed on a business trip across the country or you’ve booked an all-inclusive vacation down south.

Cruising through the airports from takeoff to landing, more often than not result in some kind of a hiccup, from lost luggage and carry-on bags to overweight baggage fees, no matter how thoroughly you’ve planned it out, whether you’re a frequent flyer or not, unforeseen airport situations are bound to crop up every now and then.

But we’ve found a way to get around at least a handful of them. Enter Bluesmart: the world’s first piece of smart luggage that aims to make traveling a hell of a lot easier on everyone — from traveler to airport security personnel.

What Is Bluesmart?

Like Airbnb and Uber before them, the Bluesmart travel bag was conceived with the idea of taking travel to the digital age. Complete with a built-in battery to charge your electronics on the go (there’s enough juice to charge the average iPhone up to six times) and a free app that’s programmed to weigh your bag on command with its built-in scale, to track your bag’s location on a map and to lock and unlock your bag all with the swipe of a finger.

Travel, welcome to the 21st century.

The Experience

Upon receiving the carry on and downloading the app, it’s clear right away that this is much more than just a digitalized carry-on. It takes all your flight details and stores them in one place. You can program your flight itinerary and enable the app to send you alerts and updates regarding your flight — including your flight status, which makes staying organized at the airport a lot more feasible.

During the bustle of boarding, if you happen to up and leave your carry on behind, the Bluesmart app will send you a friendly reminder in the form of a push notification to double check that your bag is with you. This can be annoying if, say, you’ve left your bag with a friend at the gate while doing a quick coffee run, but the slight annoyance is worth it for the one time you did actually need that reminder to go grab your bag if you’ve darted through the airport without it.

Travel bugs, beware! Aside from all the bells and whistles to ensure a smooth trip through the airport, Bluesmart actually tracks your trip data and, soon, will award you with new levels as you build milage. It'll track the airports you’ve visited and the time you’ve spent in each country around the world so you can share with your Bluesmart-toting friends — a feature that makes the desire to level up an even bigger addiction than the grip Angry Birds and Candy Crush had on you before it.

The Verdict

Pros

Bluesmart’s design is versatile and stylish — suiting just about any airport style — which is a major bonus. When you think of “the world’s first smart luggage” you certainly don’t think of a stylish piece of baggage.

The app is well designed, aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. It works well on data or Wi-Fi and takes minimal time to sync with a new Bluesmart (less than two minutes).

The price is more than reasonable for the product. Most midrange hardshell carry-ons cost anywhere from $200 to $600, so a cool $400 for a tech-enabled model is certainly fair.

Cons

Weighing in at a chunky 10 pounds when empty, don’t expect to breeze through security if you’re traveling on a discount airline and have a penchant for overpacking. (Most economy seats only accommodate carry on bags up to 20 pounds).

While some may see it as a pro, there is a lot of wasted space for electronics. If you’re always traveling with a laptop and a tablet, this makes for an easy security check, but if you prefer to reserve space for clothing and shoes, this could significantly hinder your wardrobe options.

The Bluesmart carry-on bag is available for $399.00 at Huckberry.com. The complementary Bluesmart app is available on the App Store and on Google Play and can be downloaded without purchasing the bag.

AskMen may receive a portion of revenue if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.
The links are independently placed by our Commerce team and do not influence editorial content. To find out more, please read our complete
terms of use.